


caged feelings

by meteor-sword (vaenire)



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: :), M/M, Oblivious, Oblivious Pining, Pining, Pre-Relationship, Pre-book 4, Zoo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:35:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26695369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vaenire/pseuds/meteor-sword
Summary: Mako didn't appreciate Wu's singing the way the badgermoles did.
Relationships: Mako/Prince Wu (Avatar)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 117





	caged feelings

**Author's Note:**

> SHOUT OUT TO [ SHORTKINGZUKO](https://shortkingzuko.tumblr.com/) FOR THE TITLE <3 <3

Wu was singing to the badgermoles, back turned to Mako and giving him a moment to wonder how exactly he ended up here. 

‘Here’ in the physical sense of: in this zoo, a respectable fifteen feet behind the insufferable Earth Kingdom Prince as he serenaded gigantic animals (who, to Mako’s chagrin, seemed to be riveted by the show), squished between a group of older women cooing in the Prince’s direction and a family of snot-nosed kids trying to shove their way to the front of the viewing area. 

But also ‘here’ in the cosmic sense-- at what point in his life did he take the turn toward this fate? Did he do something to upset Chief Beifong? Or did it go further back-- perhaps he had misstepped somewhere in the Spirit World with Korra. Or maybe Bolin did something to doom Mako. 

How did the universe align so that he was the one assigned to the Prince? 

Before he let himself trace back his every decision leading to this moment, Wu’s singing suddenly ended and he was looking back at Mako with a shine in his eyes and a warm, eager smile. Mako grits his teeth not to show any reaction, grinding his heel into the airy feeling that smile put in his chest just the same as he ground his teeth. 

The Prince was incredibly annoying, a loudmouth who needed to learn manners stat, a horrible singer without regard to anyone around him. But he was sweet and buoyant, somewhere under all that arrogance and privilege. 

“Let me see the zoo map,” Wu said, holding out his hand expectantly. Mako stared at it.

“I don’t have the map.” He wasn’t here to carry things for Wu. 

Wu contorted his mouth into a pursed little frown and scrunched up his brows before a memory breached and he lit up again, feeling the pockets of his jacket. They were long pockets, their openings laying against Wu’s ribs, and easily fit the zoo’s brochure. With a self-satisfied grin, Wu unfolded it and studied the map. 

“Oooh an aquarium?” 

Mako kept pace with Wu, resigned to spend the entire afternoon in this overcrowded zoo. He had never been to one before, but he was never as interested in animals as Bolin, so he was not impressed to watch a meandering ostrich horse or lethargic badgermole. Wu, however, seemed utterly captivated by everything he saw. 

He followed a few feet behind Wu as they entered the aquarium building, keeping closer when he realized how dark it was inside-- but still kept his distance as the Prince cooed at the various bottomfeeders, the urchins, the shellfish native to the waters just outside in the piers of the city. 

The aquarium building was a large circle, the center of which was comprised of a three story tall tank full of large fish and sharks, swimming in endless circles. Near the entrance, though, this large tank was not yet visible-- it was just behind the wall, but it was blocked from view by the small habitats Wu the smaller sea creatures. Still, Wu fussed over all of the little creatures, no matter how plain looking. Mako glanced in the dark water of the tanks, but remained unimpressed. 

When he followed him into the larger opening curving around the titanic shark tank, with all round edges to allow the sharks and other inhabitants to swim in circles in the center of the viewing room, Mako allowed more space to grow between them. He kept his eyes flitting from person to person, forcing himself to stay on high alert and resisting the cool lull of fins and gills and awestruck children. 

But his eyes returned to Wu, willfully or not. 

The aquarium bustled with families and tour groups, even as visitors were hushed by the hypnotizing trickle of water all around.

Wu disappeared for a second, and Mako was just starting to whip his head around to look more panickedly when he spotted him sitting on the bench not ten feet in front of himself. 

It was too dark to let him too far, Mako realized with a roll of his eyes. He came to stand a few feet to the left and rear of the bench, but Wu peered over his shoulder and spotted him, pulled him down to the bench. A big shark swam by and Wu linked his arm through Mako’s, squeezing his bicep lightly. 

“Isn’t that incredible?” 

Mako frowned at Wu’s hand on his arm, then at the side of Wu’s face, eyes and smile wide with amazement as he tracked the shark’s path-- and then he frowned at the tail of the shark as it disappeared around the curvature of the tank. It was suddenly very claustrophobic to Mako, in the dark cool space lit only by what filtered through the water of the tank. He shook his arm free of Wu and sat tensely, ignoring Wu’s pout. 

“You know,” Wu said, suddenly over Mako’s standoffish move. “My mother used to bring me to the Ba Sing Se Zoo all the time.” Mako looked at the Prince’s silhouetted profile. “Did you know Avatar Aang founded the zoo there? I heard he loved animals.” He laughed. “No matter how many times we went, I never got bored. I always wanted a pet but, living in the palace with my aunt and all…” he trailed off hastily, but Mako could fill in the rest. “My mother bought me a stuffed platypus bear and I named it Aang.”

Mako was somewhat accustomed to Wu’s babbling, but this wasn’t the usual spiel about salon visits or tailoring appointments. 

“Well, what about you? You must’ve gotten _bored_ with everything there is to do in Republic City.” 

Mako winced. There _were_ always new experiences for him growing up, but not the cultural experiences Wu was implicating. 

“No,” Mako said plainly, “I’ve never been to the zoo before.” 

If Wu had been holding anything at the moment, he would’ve dropped it. He whipped his head around to look at Mako, eyes wide and mouth open. “What? With how bored you’re acting a guy would’ve thought you’ve been here a thousand times!” 

“I’m _working_ ,” Mako said with an eye roll, crossing his arms. 

“What were you doing as a kid, then?” Wu pressed. 

_Working_ , he almost said. He chided himself internally, though-- Wu doesn’t care. He shrugged instead. 

“Well,” Wu said, grabbing the map out of his pocket again. “Why don’t you choose the next exhibit, buddy?” He shoved it into Mako’s lap. 

Mako squinted at the map before remembering himself and shrugging, shoving the map back to Wu. “I don’t care.” 

Wu frowned at him. “Well, have you ever been to the Fire Nation? We can go to that section of the zoo.” 

Mako rolled his eyes. “I have been to the Earth Kingdom. Did not affect my interest the last--” he checked his watch “two hours.” 

“Yeah, but… your _people_ are Fire Nation, so maybe…?” Wu tried with an allegedly charming smile and tilt of his chin. Mako didn’t look at him. 

Mako gave a thin, cynical smile and furrowed his brows as another huge shark passed in front of them. Wu’s attention was still on Mako. 

He weighed whether he should even give into this nonsense conversation-- Wu didn’t want to know about Mako, but there was a satisfaction he imagined in telling Wu exactly how little he knew about Mako. 

“My _Dad_ was born in Ba Sing Se.” 

Mako could see Wu gawking for a split second before he sat up straighter, exuberant. “Mine too!” 

Mako couldn’t hold back the frown he shot at Wu. Of course he was-- the grandson of King Kuei couldn’t really be born anywhere other than Ba Sing Se. Mako didn’t say that: he didn’t know the story about Wu’s father, though he probably should. He was dead by now, of course, if Wu was next in line for the throne. 

“Come on,” Wu said as he stood suddenly, pulling on Mako’s arm. “Let’s go see the lion vultures!” 

—

The vultures were in the Fire Nation section, which Mako should have guessed. 

The birds didn’t hold Wu’s attention for long, and soon Mako found himself watching Wu watch huge, brutish Komodo Rhinos stomp around their enclosure. The other couples and families that had been making the circuit with him and Wu disappeared when they turned into the rhino enclosure, and as Mako allowed himself to read the informational placards for the first time that day, he thought he understood why. Even seventy years after the war, it was hard for many people in any former colonies to take pleasure watching the rhinos. 

Except, of course, Wu. 

“Aren’t they cute?” Wu said, face pressed to the glass in the empty viewing area. The rhinos paid him no mind. 

“Yeah, adorable,” Mako agreed sarcastically. 

“Well, I’m sure they’d feel the same way about you,” Wu sniffed. “Wouldn’t you?” 

To Mako’s amazement, the nearest of the rhinos looked in their direction before tossing its head. Wu shot Mako a smug look and shrugged. 

“Tch.” 

“It’s not _their_ fault people are scared of them,” Wu said, and Mako wasn’t sure if he was talking to him or the animals. “Bad people used them to do bad things. That’s all.” 

Mako stared at the back of the Prince’s head for a moment, on the cusp of a realization, when he suddenly broke into song. Mako didn’t listen to the lyrics whatsoever, immediately turning away from Wu as if to indicate they were _not_ friends, if there had been anyone around to see. 

“Alright, that’s enough,” Mako said as Wu started on a second verse, closing his hand on Wu’s shoulder and shoving him (gently) back out of the rhino enclosure. “It’s time we get going.”

Wu made a sound of disappointment, but fell into step beside Mako anyway. He pulled the map out once again, chattering on about something while Mako quietly delighted in the idea that they were _finally leaving_. He was already recounting mentally what food he had at home, what he could make for dinner with the time left in the day, when Wu stopped dead in his tracks. 

“What’s wrong?” Mako asked reflexively, tensing. 

But Wu was sniffing the air, eyes closed, before standing up straighter, excitement obvious. “Do you smell that?” 

Mako frowned, but paid attention when he breathed in. There was the smell of the froofy, overly sweet food sold in festivals and expensive tourist destinations, like the zoo. 

“Yeah?” he said with askance, and unspoken _so what?_

“Don’t tell me you don’t know that smell,” Wu said, hand flying to his chest. “Mako, you can’t tell me you don’t know that smell.” When Mako made no indication otherwise, Wu looked to jump out of his skin. “Okay, we’re fixing that.” 

Wu grabbed Mako’s wrist now, turning on his heel to hunt down the source of the smell. When he spotted a kid with some kind of pastry-- Mako couldn’t get a good look-- Wu stopped the boy’s mother and asked where they’d gotten the item. She pointed in some direction over her shoulder and Wu set off again, determined. 

Mako had never seen Wu move so fast before, and he picked up his pace further when he spotted the right food vendor on the corner between the Earth Kingdom terrestrial predators and the path back to the aquarium. A hand painted banner advertised… fish. 

Mako frowned at Wu as he pulled Mako up to the window and ordered two of the goods. 

“You still don’t know them?” Wu asked as he counted out the yuans for the pastries, nodding to the banner vaguely. Mako shrugged. “I mean, if your Dad’s Earth Kingdom, I’m just a bit floored you never had one of these.” 

Mako shrugged again, frowning sourly despite himself. 

The vendor handed two fish-shaped pastries wrapped in paper. Wu turned back to Mako with a face splitting grin and shoved one of them toward Mako. 

He took it hesitantly, feeling the hot bready pastry through the thin paper before watching in amazement as Wu took his first bite from the fish’s fin-- instantly regretting it as he realized just _how_ hot it was. His eyes went wide and he struggled to simultaneously open his mouth enough to cool the hot pastry in his mouth off and swallow it as fast as possible. Mako fought the smile that broke on his face. 

He pulled a piece off the pastry fish and blew on its hot insides before taking a tentative bite. It was a sweet-ish, crispy-ish bread filled with hot red bean. He chewed rather gingerly and swallowed, hit by the sweet aftertaste. It was a familiar taste, the sticky flavor sticking to the roof of his mouth and his teeth just as the gritty texture stayed on his tongue. It made him think of street fairs long forgotten when he might’ve swung between sure arms or ridden on shoulders. He realized he had squeezed some of the red bean out of the pastry. He held himself back from immediately ripping off more, not when Wu was studying his reaction as closely as he was. 

“So what do you think, big guy?” Wu asked, but the smugness in his voice belied what he knew Mako thought. But it wasn’t _just_ smugness-- there was a warmth there, too. Mako had a sudden thought of _was Wu a mindreader?_ before he snapped back to the present. 

“It’s fine,” he said with a shrug. Wu’s smile did not falter and his eyes narrowed. He hummed. 

They fell into a stroll, silent as they both slowly ate their pastries. The silence was a little awkward, and Mako wanted to say _something_ to fill it, but he held himself back. It wasn’t like Wu to be so quiet, and he found himself wondering what he was thinking despite himself. 

“I wonder if my favorite _bungeoppang_ place is still there.” 

Mako frowned around his bite, coming to a stop under a tree along the zoo’s guiding path. Of all the things to be concerned with in the current state of affairs, he wanted to know about his pastry shop. Typical. 

Wu continued, “My mother and I would go whenever we visited my father.” 

Mako raised a brow without intending to let himself show any reaction. 

“Yeah, my great-aunt did not like my parents,” Wu said with a sigh. Mako tilted his head. “It’s because they were actually friends, is what my mother said. Aunt Hou-Ting hated her husband, since it was arranged by her father. She was married to a nobleman from Buntang, her brother--my Grandpa-- was married to a noblewoman from Gaoling. My aunt and uncle’s spouses came from different provinces, too. My mother is from Omashu.” He sighed again. “My family has known the Earth Kingdom was on the edge for… _generations_.” 

Mako processed the deluge of personal information. “Visited your father?” 

Wu smiled coldly, and it felt alien to see such a look on his face. 

“I don’t remember why, but she sent my father to live outside of the rings for several years… That’s why we went to the zoo, too.” He laughed. “It’s funny how much more freedom my mother and I had, because I was only fourth or fifth in line for the crown, then. She never would have let me go to school in Republic City if she knew my father and his siblings and kids and everyone were going to…” He looked away, gazing up the path distantly. 

Mako hadn’t considered what it really meant for Wu, the great-nephew of Queen Hou-Ting, to be next in line. There was no one else in his family. 

“Your mother…?” 

Wu snapped back to attention. “My mother?” When Mako fumbled to elaborate, he smiled gently. “She was visiting home when this all…” he trailed off. He still clutched the last bite or two of his _bungeoppang_. “I haven’t heard from her since, so…” 

That distance returned to Wu’s eyes as he stared at his pastry. 

Mako fumbled his response. “I’m sorry.” 

Wu looked at him, a mixture of surprise and sadness and gratefulness flashing over his face. 

They stood holding the remnants of their treats, now too unsure as to finish them, their thoughts miles away.

“Do you think…” Mako started, and then mentally kicked himself. They weren’t friends, Mako reminded himself, wondering self consciously where this urge to ask questions and know more about Wu’s thoughts was coming from. 

“Think what?” 

Mako rubbed his forehead. “Do you think it would’ve been different if you’d been there?” 

Wu’s smile turned wry and cynical, replacing the gentle openness from a moment before. 

“You were there, weren’t you?” Wu asked, and Mako was thrown for a moment-- they had never discussed that day in Ba Sing Se before. “With Avatar Korra. Do _you_ think it would’ve made a difference?” 

Mako tensed. He thought about it. The chaos following the Earth Queen’s death had been unpredictable and volatile. But if there had been the possibility of a quick transfer of power, perhaps the crowds would have been controllable, a leadership that the military could unite behind.

There was also the possibility that the mobs would have overrun the palace and killed anyone who stood in their way. Such was the nature of incohesive groups of people with their own motivations of greed or fear or hunger. 

“Maybe,” Mako said. “Or… maybe they would have killed you.”

Mako has never held himself back from being frank with the Prince before, but it feels more raw, more decisive, to be frank this time. But Wu’s face doesn’t express any shock at the statement at all. 

“Yeah. Maybe.” 

The space under the tree felt too small. Something about Wu’s reaction, how grounded he was, for once, under this tree in the zoo with red bean smeared on his chin, made Mako’s head spin. This was not the Prince he knew-- and yet he _was_ , still that buoyant, _flamboyant_ Prince. He watched Wu take the last bite of his _bungeoppang_. Mako didn’t have the appetite to finish his, all of a sudden. 

It had started sprinkling raindrops while they stood under the tree, apparently. Mako forced himself to finish the last of the pastry, balling up the paper before popping his collar, preparing to walk the rest of the way to the entrance. Wu adjusted his scarf before flashing Mako a closed-eye grin and linking their arms. 

If Wu held slightly tighter than usual, and Mako was slightly more aware of it, then Mako pushed the thought as far down as he could. 

**Author's Note:**

> i hope i captured pining mako! i feel like it was tricky to attempt :) lmk how i did! 
> 
> swing by my [tumblr](https://meteor-sword.tumblr.com) too :)


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